Our Story

It is first of all a “love-at-first-sight romance” for the island of Grado. In the early 20s, Ottavio and Carla Dall’Oglio arrive in Grado and fall in love with the island. Ten years later they decide to buy a small house with 9 rooms and a café, the “Caffè Garibaldi”.

In 1937 the Hotel Diana is officially opened with three floors and 27 rooms. Ottavio suddenly dies in 1941 leaving his wife Carla and their young daughter Carla-Uccia at the head of the hotel, together with grand-mother Angiolina. These three women decide to run the house alone and make it a real women business generation after generation, Uccia taking over with her daughter Ottavia, continuing with her daughters. Marina, the eldest, who is now in charge of the hotel working hand in hand with her family and Beatrice coming from Brussels for the summer. The men of the family joined these working ladies later on. Pio Tomaselli, Uccia’s husband, a great pilot from the Italian Military Airforce, comes in the early 70s and Ferdi Marchioro, Ottavia’s husband, knowledgeable steel expert working for the European Commission in Brussels joins his wife at the end of the 90s.

The hotel is enlarged in the early 50s to its present size in 1967. It is regularly renewed with full care year after year, becoming a meeting point for the whole family. We are today the fifth generation with our grand-children and many of our guests follow the same pattern coming year after year with their families and friends.

In 1999 the family buys the nearby Villa Rosa which is completely renewed in year 2000 becoming a small family residence run together with Hotel Diana.

Many ask us where the name “Diana” comes from. The name was chosen by grand-father Ottavio who was passionate with history and mythology. He was very fond of Diana "the hunt goddess".